Millions along the United State’s south-Atlantic coast are preparing for the potentially devastating effects of Hurricane Matthew.
A National Weather Service release from Thursday morning warned of “devastating wind impacts” that the coast hasn’t experienced the likes of in “decades.”
The storm has already left a wake of over 100 dead in Haiti and now could be the first Category 4 hurricane to hit Florida since Charley in 2004.
Former WGIL staff member and Knoxville native Michelle McCoy lived through Charley but says Matthew is “worse.”
She’s in Daytona Beach and despite Gov. Rick Scott’s pleas to “evacuate, evacuate, evacuate” McCoy is staying, staying staying.
She’s far enough in-land that flooding most likely won’t reach her, although she anticipates loosing power for a while.
Yesterday she saw gas stations out of gas, grocery stores out of food and store shelves empty of supplies like batteries.
Some might think that Floridians would have supplies like plywood and extra batteries on hand for natural disasters but McCoy reminds Galesburg Morning News on WGIL that many are caught off guard with it being so long since the last major hurricane.
“So it’s been a long time and I think people have become a little lax in their preparedness and so they haven’t thought it was necessary to have (supplies) on hand,” McCoy says.
President Obama has declared a state of emergency in Florida.
This gives the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency authority to begin using federal dollars to coordinate disaster relief efforts.